PC Protection

On 03/23/2016 06:13 PM, » Chevron « wrote:

[snip]

No, I never use any noscript extensions causes to much problems for my
liking.

I used to use NoScript. There are too many sites depending on
third-party scripts from multiple sites, and can mess up (text on text,
non-functional menus, erroneous links, etc...) when scripts are blocked.
Even if you know you ned to enable a script, a site could be trying to
use scripts from 30 or more sources, most of which have meaningless
names. There's no help for determining which to enable.

I finally gave up on NoScript when clicking a link on my bank's site
took me to a completely inappropriate site.

Another (security related) annoyance is sites that REQUIRE third-party
cookies and don't tell you. The usual result is an endless loop that
DOESN'T do what you want.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves.
Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child." [Robert
Heinlein, "Notebooks of Lazarus Long"]

[Default] On Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:21:16 -0700, in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general OldGuy
wrote:

Do any of the virus scanners etc provide protection against PC encrypted
takeover ransom attacks? What does?

Malwarebytes sent me an email wwith a link to What's the difference
between ransomware and [other stuff], so maybe they do.

How do they get in?

As to scripts runnning in a loop and other such script problems, I've
mitigated my problem by 50 to 80 or 90%.

I also have Adobe Flash, which is still listed as Shockwave Flash, in
Firefox at least, changed in Firefox from Always Activate to Ask to
Activate. There are lots of pages that show the small box at the top
asking to activate that do everything I want done, everything I
thought the page would do, without activating Flash, maybe 80 or 90%
don't need activation. When I do activate, I only do it for one
session.

This seems to have cut down by 80 or 90% the number of "Script will
not stop" problems I have, and when I do get that, it's much more
likely I'll know which tab generated it.

OTOH, once trying to watch a movie on pbs.org, the box didn't show up,
and I had to go to Firefox add-ons, change the setting to Always
Activate, reload the page, and watch the movie, then change the
setting back again. Since I set it back, that means every time I
want to watch something on pbs.org, I'll have to do this again. Maybe
one other page was like that but only those two so far.

Micky wrote:


OTOH, once trying to watch a movie on pbs.org, the box didn't show up,
and I had to go to Firefox add-ons, change the setting to Always
Activate, reload the page, and watch the movie, then change the
setting back again. Since I set it back, that means every time I
want to watch something on pbs.org, I'll have to do this again. Maybe
one other page was like that but only those two so far.

PBS.org pages seem to use jwplayer, as an intermediary.
And the pbs.org page also uses geolocation, so a visitor
from Canada cannot view a USA-only preview. It doesn't appear
that the Flash player is invoked directly when the page loads,
to yield a view port. Maybe that comes later, or Flash is
just used to render the video box and the controls are
ignored completely (jwplayer can trigger play of Flash
or HTML5, details unknown). I can't tell, because being in Canada,
I can't see all the behaviors here. (And no, I don't use
commercial VPNs to get around such restrictions. I've got
better things to do. If I was a Netflix addict it might be
different.)

At one time, I used to be able to pick up a PBS broadcast (OTA)
station, and the reception was pretty good. But after the
change to DTV, that stopped. So my chances of seeing any PBS
content now are... minimal.

Just be glad you're only "slightly inconvenienced".

Paul

[Default] On Thu, 24 Mar 2016 22:37:13 -0400, in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general Paul wrote:

Micky wrote:


OTOH, once trying to watch a movie on pbs.org, the box didn't show up,
and I had to go to Firefox add-ons, change the setting to Always
Activate, reload the page, and watch the movie, then change the
setting back again. Since I set it back, that means every time I
want to watch something on pbs.org, I'll have to do this again. Maybe
one other page was like that but only those two so far.

PBS.org pages seem to use jwplayer, as an intermediary.
And the pbs.org page also uses geolocation, so a visitor
from Canada cannot view a USA-only preview. It doesn't appear

I guess they take the word "public" only so far.

that the Flash player is invoked directly when the page loads,
to yield a view port. Maybe that comes later, or Flash is
just used to render the video box and the controls are
ignored completely (jwplayer can trigger play of Flash
or HTML5, details unknown). I can't tell, because being in Canada,

I didn't know that. No wonder I sometimes don't understand your
posts.

I can't see all the behaviors here. (And no, I don't use
commercial VPNs to get around such restrictions. I've got
better things to do. If I was a Netflix addict it might be
different.)

At one time, I used to be able to pick up a PBS broadcast (OTA)
station, and the reception was pretty good. But after the
change to DTV, that stopped.

Me too, and I'm in Baltimore. I had two different PBS stations that
came in well, but after digital, even after I bought an antenna amp,
the movie I was talking about, I recorded, but it was too painful to
watch. I can get several DC stations, but the two PBS stations
that I got before without the amp, I can't get. Go figure.

So my chances of seeing any PBS
content now are... minimal.

I'm not smart enough to understand most PBS shows.

Just be glad you're only "slightly inconvenienced".

OK.

Paul

"OldGuy" wrote in message ...

Do any of the virus scanners etc provide protection against PC encrypted
takeover ransom attacks? What does?
How do they get in?

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

Some of the anti-malware programs such as MalwareBytes and some Symantec
products (as well as others) advertise they can stop ransomware attacks and
there is supposedly a collation of big name company's working on ways to
defend against those type of attacks. But as others have noted, you can get
hit a number of ways. Look at ransomware as a zero day type attack. There
is little you can do to prevent it but having a recovery strategy is about
the best defense.

I've done a lot of research for a client of mine and found what we consider
to be the best solution for his situation:

1. Image backups to a USB drive and then disconnect it from your computer.
2. Don't open any attachments to emails that you are not expecting -
especially those with Word documents that can run a macro once you open the
document. You can install the "viewer" programs from MS (free) that allow
their documents to be opened without using macro's or other embedded nasty's
to run. You can also disable the macro's from being run automatically in MS
Office.

I have gone with the above strategy and have 20 of his systems imaged to two
Western Digital, 4TB USB-3 drives which get updated as needed. One USB drive
is kept in the safe at his business, the other he has in a safe at an
offsite location. That insures there is a recovery method for just about
any anomaly. Same strategy can be used for any computer you own. Nightly
backups of his customer database files are also backed up to two offsite
locations.

If my client does get hit, the ransomware will most likely crawl his network
very quickly and encrypt any and all computers, NAS units and mapped
drives - pretty much shutting him down for a few hours. The main business
systems can be reimaged in a couple of hours and brought back online.
Inconvenienced - absolutely but he won't have to shell out any Bitcoin's to
get his systems back.

A friend of his that has a small business got hit several months back and he
brought in the FBI only to be told, if he didn't have backups (he didn't)
and wanted his data files back, he would have to negotiate with the
ransomware bad guys. They couldn't do anything to help him. He paid $5K
and then immediately went out and purchased a couple of USB drives and
Acronis as the imaging software. He got lucky and they did un-encrypt his
files but they could also come back to him a second time - or more, if he
doesn't get the malware totally off his system. Once he recovered his
business files, he had the old hard drive trashed and started new.

You probably have read in many places that backups are your best defense
since anti-malware programs are not 100% effective - believe it and do it.

Bob S.